What upsets me … is the Prince’s almost brutal attitude to the Queen over all this

March 8, 2017March 8, 2017 by Royal Fans

The Royal House of Windsor: Prince Philip wanted to change the Royal Family’s name

The Royal House of Windsor looks back at dilemma Queen Elizabeth II faced when Prince Philip asked that the Royal Family be known as the House of Mountbatten-Windsor.

Why did Prince Philip want to change the Royal Family’s name?

Queen Elizabeth with Prince Philips Photo (C) GETTY IMAGES

After the Queen took to the throne in 1952, Prince Philip asked that the Royal Family take his suname and be known as the House of Mountbatten.

As Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten noted, it was at the time standard routine for a wife to adopt her husband’s name.

The Queen chose to retain her father’s name, Windsor, on the advice of her Prime Minister Winston Churchill and her grandmother Queen Mary.

Famously, Philip complained: “I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.”

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith has said that the Queen was reduced to teats by Philip’s “brutal” reaction.

Her 2012 book Elizabeth the Queen even suggests that the name row was to blame for the 10-year gap between the births of Princess Anne and Prince Edward.

In 1960, while she was pregnant with the Duke of York, the Queen is said to have visited Prime Minister Howard Macmillan to “revisit the issue of her family name, which had been irritating her husband since 1952”.

Queen Elizabeth with Prince Philips Photo (C) GETTY IMAGES

Bedell Smith cited Macmillan’s diary, in which he wrote: “The Queen only wishes (properly enough) to do something to please her husband – with whom she is desperately in love.

“What upsets me … is the Prince’s almost brutal attitude to the Queen over all this.”

That year, the Queen declared that while the Royal Family would continue to be known as the House of Windsor, descendants without the style of HRH and the title of Prince or Princess would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

The announcement came after the death of Queen Mary and the resignation of Winston Churchill.

What is Prince Philip’s surname?

The Duke was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

Philip gave up his title ahead of his engagement to Elizabeth and adopted the name Mountbatten after his maternal grandparents.

Shortly before the royal wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1957, Philip was made a Prince of the United Kingdom by his wife.

hat is The Royal House of Windsor?

Queen Elizabeth II greets Sir Jeremy Heywood (back to camera) as she attends a reception for female permanent secretaries at The Queen’s Gallery on February 21, 2017 in London

The Royal House of Windsor is a landmark new documentary series which uses archive footage and new interviews to explore the history of the Royal Family.

Episode one revisited the Edward VIII abdication crisis and the early years of King George VI’s reign.

Episode two looked back at King George VI and a young Queen Elizabeth’s South African tour.

Source: EXPRESS CO UK

Tags: Prince Philip, Young Man, Queen, Surname, Family Name, Royal Family Names, Royal Family Surname